US election: An election night chat with 'Joe the plumber'

Joe Wurzelbacher, also known as 'Joe the Plumber', stands onstage at a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

As the polls closed in America's presidential election, the talismanic Republican known as "Joe the plumber" was showing signs of weariness with his new-found celebrity, with politics and with the way he was used by John McCain's campaign.

In an interview with the Guardian outside his Ohio home tonight, Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher stuck to his conservative principles by expressing admiration for Margaret Thatcher and scorn for those on social security.

But he vented frustration at the way McCain thrust him into the spotlight by mentioning him more than a dozen times during a televised debate with Barack Obama, in which Wurzelbacher was held as an example of an aspirational working man.

"I was unhappy that my name was used as much as it was because I think there were real other issues that should've been discussed during the debate," said Wurzelbacher. "I was happy that I was used as a focal point but I didn't think I was going to be the only point."

Seemingly disillusioned by his treatment during the election, Wurzelbacher continued: "You know, fame is fleeting, leaves you hungry, leaves you cold, leaves you tired. Fortune never comes with it."

Dressed in a grey sports T-shirt and blue track pants, Wurzelbacher, 34, talked while smoking a cigarette and leaning against his black sports utility vehicle on the driveway of his home in Holland, a working-class town in one of the key swing states of the election.

He found himself in an international spotlight when he challenged Obama about a policy of raising taxes for those earning more than $250,000 - a disincentive, argues Wurzelbacher, for those aspiring to run small businesses.

"Life is hard. No one said it would be easy and there's no such thing as fair - whoever came up with that was absolutely asinine. There's breaks and you make 'em," said Wurzelbacher. "I've worked my butt off my whole life, I was able to purchase a home, I was able to buy a car, this was from my sweat."

The plumber said he objected to any of his money being used to support the unemployed: "Basically it's wrong to take money away from people who work hard. There's guys out there who make their obligatory one phone call a week, supposedly looking for work, and then they go to the welfare office, looking for a cheque. My money shouldn't go towards them. They don't do anything. They don't contribute to society - they take away from it. And I have a problem with people like that.

Since he was named by McCain as a typical American with "real" concerns, Wurzelbacher has become a cult figure among conservatives. T-shirts bear his name, tourists stop to take pictures outside his home and he is bombarded with phone calls, not all of which are pleasant.

The media has pointed out that he lacks a plumbing licence, that he has a lien against his house for unpaid taxes and that he would actually benefit from Obama's tax policies even if he bought out the two-man plumbing firm for which he works.

A left-wing presenter on a San Francisco radio station even told listeners that he would like to see "Joe the plumber" dead - although the broadcaster later insisted that he was talking about the political concept, rather than Wurzelbacher himself.

A single father with a shaved head and a mid-western drawl, Wurzelbacher said he admired Baroness Thatcher: "She's an individual I would love to meet."

Wurzelbacher said he got his political convictions from reading books - and that he disliked television: "I've only seen myself on TV once since this whole thing started."

He plans to write a book and has set up a website about "securing" the American dream: "It's to encourage the American people to get back in charge of government and to hold our elected officials responsible."

He said he would consider running for Congress in eight to 10 years, once his 13-year-old son has grown up. Until then, he said: "I'll be a mouthpiece for middle America - for those who are going to have to take back America."

When asked whether his world vision was a harsh one in which only the fittest prosper, Wurzelbacher replied: "That's always been the way of things. It's not necessarily the survival of the fittest. In some cases, it's the smartest. In sports, it's the strongest."

Wurzelbacher has been branded an extremist by many Democrats. Obama himself has avoided criticising the plumber except to remark that for all the "Joe the plumbers" opposed to redistribution, there are also "Joe the hedge-fund managers" who make far more substantial sums.

Wurzelbacher shrugged off his critics: "We live in a capitalist society. I didn't design it, I have some problems with it, I think there should be a moral compass to guide it. But there's no real way to do that."